Spotify Says Hello To The iPod

Spotify has been
listening to its customers and launched an updated version of its desktop and
mobile applications to allow users to sync their playlists with their iPods,
iPhones and Android devices.

Until now, only
premium users have been able to bring their playlists from Spotify with them
but with this update everyone will be able to sync their iPods with the
playlists on their desktop- which
could mean the need to use iTunes is drastically reduced. Now, when you connect
your iDevice or Android handset to your PC or Mac you will see them show up in
the new ‘Devices’ section of the Spotify sidebar. However this is only one of
the two major innovations being rolled out by Spotify as it will now also let
users purchase tracks via its new Spotify download service.

The new music
store will allow customers to purchase whole playlists with just one click and
offer bundles of 10 tracks for £7.99, or 80p-per-track, or bundles of 100 tracks
for 50p-per-track. Again this will throw up a challenge to iTunes undercutting
the price of tracks available on its service. A further innovation which iTunes
does not offer is the ability to wireless sync playlists to your iPhone or iPod touch. The update will be rolled out to all users automatically from
today and this will only make the already popular service even more popular.
Latest figures show that there are currently 10 million registered users with 1
million subscribers.

Spotify has been
working on this service for over a year following huge demand from customers for
such a system and as a result other things have been put on the back burner –
possibly including the expansion into the US which has been much delayed.
Speaking about this, a Spotify spokesperson said: “We're still working
hard on that. We're getting closer."

In the meantime this latest addition to the service will worry
Apple as it could signal a move away from the need to use iTunes for organising your
music on your iPod and could make them introduce their music streaming service a little quicker.